Higurashi High
by Der Blaue Wolf
Summary: Shion is bored at school, as always. It's a very boring school. That is until the new transfer student arrives, although there seems to be something wrong with him. AU. SatoShion. DISCONTINUED I'm afraid.
1. Prologue

A/N: My new Higurashi fic is here! It's another SatoShion fic, this time in an AU setting. I've noticed a distinct lack of proper AUs for Higurashi, and Umineko for that matter. Wonder why... regardless, here we go. One more note, I'm going to do my best to do this with the American/Japanese school system. If I make mistakes with it, please feel free to correct me.

Higurashi High, Prologue

Shion sat by in her usual seat, next to Rena in the row of four at the back of the class. On the other side of Rena sat her sister, who was busy arguing with the boy in front of her: Keiichi. Shion yawned. It was their first day back after the summer, their only summer as first-years at high school, gone by so quickly. She leaned against to her left, where there was an empty seat. It was always like this, they would always sit just like this. The four of them had been friends for a good three years now, and by some miracle, had always ended up in the same homeroom classes.

The high school they all went to was perhaps the dullest place this side of Tokyo. It was supposed to be a very good school, but it did not really seem like it. None of the four of them had ever found it particularly good as far as schools ever were. To Shion, the only good thing about it was that it was where her grandmother was not. Being the younger sister, her grandmother never liked her as much as Mion, and it showed. Their family owned a large business, and their grandmother was always trying to groom Mion to take it over when she was an adult, shunning Shion as a result. In spite of this, Shion bore no ill-will towards Mion. It was hardly her older sister's fault that she was a whole five minute older than Shion.

Shion was currently watching Mion and Keiichi's argument develop into a physical conflict of sorts. To be more accurate, Mion had just punched Keiichi, but of course, Keiichi could not hit a girl, that would break rule number one for being a man, so her just complained at Mion until she hit him again. Everything was just like normal, with Rena saying that "Maybe Mii-chan shouldn't be so violent, so violent."

Yep everything was just the same as normal. So normal that Shion thought maybe somebody was deliberately doing it to build up to something abnormal that would happen in about three minutes.

Just as she thought that, the teacher came in, and they did their usual standing and bowing routine. Then the teacher said, "Class, we have a new transfer student who has come to Tokyo recently. Hojo-san, you may come in now."

A blonde boy entered. The first things that struck Shion were his dark eyes, in such great contrast to his blonde hair. She examined his face carefully, noting his thin cheeks, his rounded chin, carefully making a mental map of every detail of his face. She liked what she saw, a kind, handsome face. She thought he was probably the sort of person she would like to get to know.

The boy stood at the front of the class. "I'm Satoshi Hojo," he said, "I'm pleased to meet you."

Shion thought that his voice had a slightly odd tone. It was strained almost, as if saying just that was a great effort.

"Hojo-san, please go to the seat at the back," the teacher said. Shion realised that the teacher meant the seat next to her. Something different had happened that morning, and in the space of, Shion glanced at her watch, 2 minutes 43.

Satoshi walked over to the desk and sat down. Shion smiled at him, he did not return it, he just sat and looked to the front. Shion raised an eyebrow, 'He really is an odd one, mysterious even.' She looked back to the front, as the teacher took the role-call. She took another side-glance at Satoshi, 'What a nice name,' she thought, 'and such nice hair and his eyes,' it was then that she noticed something strange. In his eyes was something that she had seldom seen before. Fear, worry and above all, sorrow.

* * *

It took three days of Shion greeting Satoshi in the morning before she got any sort of response, but on the Thursday, she got him to reply, it was only a simple 'Good morning,' and then he went back to staring at the board at the front. Shion, feeling good about him finally replying decided to try pressing him for a little more.

"Hey Satoshi, did you get that English homework done?"

Satoshi turned to her, "Yeah, I managed it."

"Well I was wondering, could you give me a bit of help? The only other person I could ask is sis and, well she's not the brightest person ever."

"Sure," he replied. It had not been much, but Shion had got him talking, it was her chance to get to know him. It was a start.

* * *

Bis Bald

BW


	2. Chapter 1

Welcome to chapter one. Before we get started, just a brief note about ages. Of the main characters, Shion, Mion and Satoshi are all about 17, while Rena and Keiichi are 16, but they're all in the same year. Rika and Satoko are both 12. Now, onwards and backwards!

_Disclaimer: Der Blaue Wolf does not own any of the following: Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, the characters from it, Tokyo or the Japanese school system. If I owned any of those, I would be pretty damn rich. _

Higurashi High, Ch1

Shion was sat in her seat as usual on the first Friday morning of the new term. She watched as Rena tried to stop Mion from beating Keiichi's skull in. Rena was failing so far, and Keiichi looked as though Mion had taken a hammer to his head. Shion was distracted from the spectacle by the chair on her left being scraping on the ground as it was pulled back. She turned her head to see the new student, Satoshi, siting down on the chair.

"Morning, Satoshi-kun," she said.

"Good morning, Sonozaki-san," Satoshi replied.

"Please, call me Shion, everybody does, otherwise it'd get confusing with Onee."

"Okay then, Shion-san."

"You don't have to be so formal." Shion wondered why Satoshi was always so uptight about everything, and he always seemed so formal.

"Well I hardly know you," Satoshi replied.

"Yeah, but I don't like people being so formal all the time. I get enough of it at home when we have guests who want to suck up to Oni-bai... I mean Obachan."

Satoshi's normally frowning face seemed to lighten up for a second. "Why do you call her that?" He asked her.

"Well ever since we were born, she's only been interested in Onee, as she's the family heir. I don't blame Mion, but I hate Obachan for always trying to get me ignored and shunned. She even wanted me to be sent away to bording school, but Okasan refused to let me be sent away."

"Sounds like your family's complicated," Satoshi said, then looked away suddenly with a saddened look on his face.

"Are you okay Satoshi-kun?" Shion asked.

"I'm... fine."

Shion di not for a moment believe it, but did not push him. They hardly knew each other, and pushing the subject could drive him away from her. "Well, if you're sure. But you know that if you ever do feel bad, you can tell me. 'Kay? Satoshi-kun."

Satoshi turned back to her, looking less down. "Thank you, Shion-sa...-chan."

* * *

"So," Mion began as she and her sister walked out of the school gates. "You seem to be getting close to that new guy, Hojo-san wasn't it?"

Shion made a noise somewhere between a snort and a laugh, "Well that depends on your definition of 'close.' He seems to be very closed-in, and doesn't like talking that much."

"You seemed to be talking a lot earlier."

"If you call that 'a lot' then there's something wrong with you. Also, even if he does 'talk,' he rarely 'says' much really. I hardly know anything about him."

"Well, even if you don't know much, you must know more than most people. You're the only one he ever talks to. Maybe he's very shy."

Shion thought about it. It was true that she had not seen him talking to anybody else. But shy? Shion thought not. She had seen that strained look in his eyes, that look of fear and sorrow. What kept him from talking to people was not shyness, it was something else. Was he afraid of getting close to anybody? But he had talked to her, when he could just have shunned her. Shion did not understand, but wanted to. She did not want the knowledge out of curiosity, but because she thought that if she understood, then maybe she could help.

Shion's phone rang, and she took it out of her pocket and answered.

"Hello."

_"Shion-chan? It's Furude-san."_ A female voice answered. _"Sorry for asking so suddenly, but could you possibly pick Rika-chan up from school? Her father and I got caught up in traffic trying to get home, so we can't go and get her."_

"Sure, I'll run over then."

_"Arigato Shion-chan."_

Shion hung up then turned to Mion. "Gomen Onee, I have to go pick up Rika-chan from school for Furude-san."

"'Kay then, I'll see you later," Mion said, before she continued the way they were going, while Shion turned and walked quickly towards the middle school.

The Sonozakis were business partners with the Furudes, so the families were fairly close, and Rika was a nice girl, if she was a little odd occaisionally. Shion and Mion had known the little girl since Rika was born.

Shion reached the middle school gates soon after. She saw Rika. The blue-haired girl was chatting to another girl who had short blonde hair. Shion thought the other girl looked vaguely familiar. She walked up to them and called, "Rika-chan."

Rika turned to the older girl, "Shion-chan? Hello!"

"Your mother asked me to come and collect you."

"Okasan did?"

"Yeah, she and you father couldn't make it back in time."

"Oh, okay." Rika then turned to the other girl, "Satoko-chan, Rika needs to go now, see you tomorrow."

The other girl, Satoko looked up, and Shion realised why she had thought that the girl looked familiar. Her eyes bore the same look as Satoshi's had. Same hair colour too. And their names were very similar. This could not be a coincidence could it?

As if to prove that there was no coincidence, Satoko suddenly looked behind Rika and Shion and something like a smile formed on her face, as she called out, "Nii-Nii!"

Shion and Rika turned to see who she was talking to, and as anybody with any deductive reasoning can guess, the boy they saw was Satoshi. He had the same almost-smile on his face as Satoko had. Shion thought he looked happier than she had ever seen him. She noticed Satoko ran up to him.

It took Shion a second to realise that she was bein spoken to. It was Satoshi, "Shion-chan, I didn't expect to meet you here."

"Oh, I'm just picking Rika-chan up for her mother." Shion paused a second before asking, "Is that your sister?"

"Yeah, this is my little sister Satoko," Satoshi replied.

"Nii-Nii, is she a friend of yours," Satoko asked.

"Yeah, she's in my class at school."

"She seems like a nice person," Satoko said, before turning to Shion. "I'm Satoko Hojo, pleased to meet you."

Shion smiled at the girl. "I'm Shion Sonozaki, it's nice to meet you too."

Satoko's face changed from the forced smile she had on before to a more genuine smile. But still, while Shion could see the smile on the girl's lips, Satoko's eyes were not smiling. Shion could still see the fear in them. What was the little girl afraid of? Was she scared of Shion? But Shion had seen that look in her eyes before Satoko had even seen the older girl. It made no sense.

Shion looked over at Satoshi instead. "Well I had better be taking Rika-chan home now. By the way, where do you live?"

Satoshi gave her an address, and Shion looked surprised, "That's in the next road to my house! I'm surprised we never run into each other on the way to school."

"Well, I have to take Satoko in in the mornings, so we have to leave early."

Shion vaguely wondered about this. True the middle school was further than the high school, but you would not have to get up that early, and she and her sister often went in early, as Mion had duties as class rep. It was odd that they should not run into each other, even after only a week. She put this to the side though and said, "Well as we all live so close, we can go back together. Let's go." Shion started walking, and the others, with a mixture of expressions, simply followed.

As they walked, Rika started talking to Satoko again, while Shion and Satoshi ended up walking together ahead of the younger pair. The older two walked in silence. Shion found the silence to be a bit unnerving, wondering if there was anything she could do to get Satoshi talking properly. She glanced up at him, taking careful note of his expression. For once it did not seem too sad. Shion wondered what could be the cause, Satoshi was always so quiet and always seemed so sad that Shion could not help but wonder what was causing it.

Satoshi turned to look at her and caught her staring at her, and she turned away blushing once she had been caught. He spoke then, saying something that surprised her, "You were wondering something, about me." He did not say it as a question, more as a statement of fact.

"I... I was just thinking," Shion said, looking up at him again, "you often look really sad, but at the moment you don't."

Satoshi looked ahead of him, staring into the distance, and Shion immediately felt guilty about talking about something so clearly personal, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have..."

"My parents died in an accident over the summer," Satoshi said bluntly, cutting Shion off.

The girl looked at him shocked, "I'm sorry, I didn't know..."

"It's okay," he cut her off again, before she descended into a long apology. "I wasn't particularly close to Okasan or my step-father, I got over their death in not too long, however..." Satoshi abruptly stopped walking, and Shion turned to him. Satoshi put on a smile, then took his sister's hand, "Well, this is my house, I'll see you tomorrow Shion-chan."

Shion realised that it was indeed the address that Satoshi had told her, she smiled back, and replied "Okay, see you tomorrow Satoshi-kun."

She began to turn away, but before she fully could, Satoshi stared straight at her pointedly, then flicked his eyes to some bushes by the house, which were very close to one of the windows, then back to Shion, and down to her left pocket, then back to her face. She nodded slightly to show she understood. She turned and left, leading Rika, as the Hojo siblings walked up the path to their home.

It was hardly any distance to Rika's house, and as soon as she had dropped the girl off, Shion back-tracked to the Hojo's house. It was getting a little dark as she got there, and she saw a light on through the window by the bush Satoshi had motioned to, and, checking that nobody was looking, hid herself in the greenery. She then raised her head so that she could just see through the window which was slightly open so that she could hear everything on the other side of it.

What she saw was a kitchen. There was nothing remarkable about the kitchen, a table with chairs round it was in the centre of the room and it had a stove and cupboards lining the walls. At the stove was Satoko, it looked as though she was making dinner. It struck Shion as odd that the little girl would be the one making dinner.

Then she heard somebody shouting, a man's voice, angrily yelling at Satoko, "Oy, Brat! Hurry up with that dinner!"

Shion heard Satoko reply with what sounded like "H-hai Ojisan" before quickly returning to the cooking. It was not long before Satoko had finished, and, having put the meal on a board in the middle of the table, she went out of the room, presumably to call everybody else, as not long after Satoko, Satoshi came into the room. Shion noticed that Satoshi glanced in her direction, obviously checking if she was there. He locked eyes with her, then looked down. Shion ducked down, then waited for a few minutes, then pulled herself up to look again.

Satoshi had, it seemed, made sure that he and Satoko were sat on the far side from the window, so they could see it and Shion, while the two other figures at the table, a man and woman who Shion assumed were the siblings' Uncle and Aunt, were facing away from the window.

There was nothing inately odd about what was going on to start with. Satoko served each of them in turn, then they all started eating. Shion could not see what it was they were eating, but after a few mouthfuls, the uncle spoke, "What do you call this crap brat? It's disgusting. You cook this for your dear uncle and aunt."

Satoko trembled slightly, and Satoshi clenched his fist. The boy then spoke, "She did her best. It's perfectly good, you shouldn't complain."

"Oh but I am Satoshi. Now what are you gonna do about this Brat?" he asked to Satoko.

Satoko's eyes widened, and she bowed her head, "Gomenasai, I'll try harder next time."

"That's not good enough!" The uncle raised his hand and hit Satoko.

Satoshi instantly stood up, his chair scraping on the ground. "Stop it!" he shouted.

"What're you gonna do to stop me?" his uncle asked him. They stared at each other, trying to make the other back down.

Shion watched all this, and felt slightly sickened. So that was why Satoshi was always looking sad and afraid. She wished there was something she could do, then she remembered what Satoshi had done when they separated. She reached into her left pocket, annd found a scrap of paper. On it was written a number, a phone number.

Shion quickly pulled out her mobile and dialed the number, being careful to make sure that her own number was withheld. She heard the phone inside ring, and although she now could not see, she heard Satoshi's uncle leave the room to answer it. She carefully, and quietly moved out of the bush, then heard the phone at the other end being picked up.

_"Moshi-Moshi."_

Shion quickly thought about what to say, then had a sudden thought, "Can I speak to Satoko-chan please, it's Rika-chan from school," she replied, trying to sound as much like the real Rika as possible. Of course, the man had almost certainly never met Rika, but it was possible that he one day might, so she had to make the act realistic.

_"Okay, one second."_

Shion heard him call to Satoko, who then spoke into the phone,_ "Rika-chan? How'd you get our number."_

Shion hoped that Satoko's uncle had not heard that. She replied, in her normal voice, "Satoko-chan, it's Shion here, but lie and say it's Rika. I'll explain properly later, but I needed to get you away from your uncle."

Satoko whispered,_ "You saw it?"_

"Yeah, now listen carefully, I want you to copy down the number I give you, then give it to Satoshi-kun without your uncle seeing, and tell him to call it when he has a chance, okay."

Satoko agreed, and once Shion had given her the number, she asked "Is your uncle still nearby?"

_"No," _came back the reply.

"Good, now remember to give the number to Satoshi. Goodbye."

Shion hung up, then glanced at her watch. She was going to be very late home, not that it mattered. Her family, apart from Mion, hardly cared about her. She just needed to make sure that she got back home in time to get Satoshi's call.

* * *

A/N: Phew, a nice long first chapter. I hope you all like this. Please review and tell me what you think. I'll try to update in not too long, but I do have six other stories to attend to as well. But for the moment:

Bis Bald

BW


	3. Chapter 2

Higurashi High, Ch2

Shion was waiting for a long time to get her call back from Satoshi. She stayed up until after midnight in the chair next to her phone. Each of the family members had their own phoneline, so she was in her bedroom, waiting. Eventually, she fell asleep where she sat.

When she woke, she felt stiff from the bad sleeping position, and looked over at the clock. It read about 10:30. She vaguely wondered why she was in the chair, when the events of the previous night came back to her. She blinked a few times, trying to get the sleep from her eyes. She looked at the still silent phone, and prepared to wait for a while longer.

It was nearly another half an hour before the phone rang. Shion quickly picked it up and put it to her ear. "Moshi-Moshi?"

_"Shion, is that you?" _Satoshi's voice came out of the receiver.

"Satoshi, yeah, it's me."

_"Sorry I couldn't call last night, I didn't get a chance until my uncle left this morning."_

There was a brief pause before Satoshi continued, _"About what you saw last night... That's why I've been acting the way I have. I didn't want to have anything that would distract me from protecting Satoko. That's why I was hardly talking to anybody."_

Shion wanted to say something, anything as a reply, but she could not think of anything. Eventually she managed to say, "I'm sorry Satoshi."

_"What do you have to be sorry for? If anything, you've been the biggest help of anybody. You got us out of the situation yesterday."_

"Only because you pre-planned it, I wish I could do more to help."

_"Shion, you don't understand how much help you have been already."_

Shion was taken aback by his words, "Wh-what do you mean?

_"I'm just glad to have somebody to talk to. It's hard to keep going with this."_

"Then why don't you call social services?"

_"We might get split up if I do that, at least while Satoko's here, I can protect her."_

"I see, I suppose. If there is anything I can do..."

Satoshi chuckled lightly, _"I'll let you know." _He paused before continuing,_ "One other thing, please don't tell anybody about all this. Now I'd better be going before my uncle gets back. I'll see you on Monday."_

"Bye, Satoshi-kun."

Shion put down the phone and sat back in her chair. She was worried about Satoshi, and his little sister. They both seemed alone in the world. What they both needed was a hug. Shion imagined hugging Satoshi, and a light blush invaded her cheeks. 'What am I thinking about? And why am I blushing? Satoshi's a friend right? But then why am I blushing at the thought of hugging him to cheer him up? I'm so confused.'

Shion was abruptly cut off from her own musings by her stomach growling. She realised that she had eaten nothing since yesterday lunchtime. 'Okay, food first, working things out later.'

* * *

Shion sat by the table, an empty plate sitting in front of her. She stared at it blandly, trying to think of anything that she could do to help Satoshi. She could not think of anything.

"Shii-chan, something wrong?" Shion looked up to see her sister standing on the opposite side of the table watching her.

"Not really Onee," Shion replied, although she knew it did not sound convincing.

"Come on Shion, what's wrong?" Mion asked her again.

"Nothing," Shion said again.

Mion put on a worried face, "Oh dear, it's so bad that you won't even tell your own big sister. Is it something you think I'd tease you about? Oh!" Mion suddenly looked serious, "Shion, is this what I think it is?"

Shion sighed, "What?"

"Are you... in love?"

Shion was taken aback by the somewhat ridiculous question, "Where on Earth did you get that idea?"

"Oh, so it's true?"

"I didn't say that!"

"Oh, my little sister had found love. Good for you sis. Is it that Satoshi boy? Oh wow!"

Shion gave up trying to reason with her sister, and just stood and left the room.

* * *

Shion wandered through the town, looking in shop windows, seeing if there was anything she wanted. The only reason she was shopping at all was to avoid Mion, and her questions about Shion's _'love.'_While the sisters generally got on well, the pair did have a tendency to annoy the hell out of each other on occasion.

In this case, Shion suspected that her sister was taking revenge for Shion's comments about her relationship with Rena. Although Shion had at least based what she said on fact: the twins had rooms next to each other, with a fairly thin wall between them, and one time when Mion had invited Rena to their house, Shion had overheard some rather unusual noises from the next room. Of course, Shion had nothing against her sister being in a relationship with a friend, regardless of gender. She only wished the pair would not do _it_ within earshot of her.

Shion was not really looking where she was going, and tripped. She fell forward into three, rather unhelpfully parked and rather cheap-looking motorbikes, knocking the three over.

She pulled herself up, and stood, looking at the fallen bikes, "Oops. Oh well, at least they aren't expensive ones."

"Wha're ya sayin' 'bout our rides?" Shion heard from behind her, and apart from being revolted by the horrible treatment of her language, was slightly scared.

How exactly they ended up there, Shion was not sure, but she was now in a back-alley, cornered by three less than pleasant looking people.

"So, what ya gonna do 'bout our rides?"

"I'm sure their fine..." Shion said.

"Da pain' job's gonna be scratch'd, what about tha'?"

"A...ano..." Shion tried to think of a way to get away, and reached behind her back for her taser.

"Leave her alone!" a voice came from behind the men, who turned, and Shion looked for the speaker at the same time.

"Wha'chya lookin' at punk!" one of the men said to the boy who had spoken.

Shion was shocked, of all the people to come to her rescue, it was Satoshi who now stood there. The man who had spoken to him now went up to him and punched him in the stomach. Satoshi fell back and hit a skip, before sliding to the floor. Shion gasped, but then she saw another figure coming down the street.

"Shit the cops! Let's get outta here," one of the men said, before they ran to their motorbikes and rode away as fast as they could.

Shion went over to Satoshi, "Satoshi-kun, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, how about you?"

"I'm okay." Shion helped the boy up from where he had fallen. Then she looked away blushing slightly, "A-ano, Satoshi-kun, thank you."

Satoshi smiled, "You don't need to thank me, I didn't do much, and besides, it's normal to help a friend isn't it?"

"Yeah, I suppose... but I still want to thank you Satoshi-kun," Shion said, looking down and blushing slightly.

Satoshi, reached out a hand and patted her on the head, "Well you've helped me, so I helped you." The contact with Satoshi's hand made Shion feel strange. Warmth spread within her, and she turned a bright crimson. Satoshi continued, "Do you want me to take you home? I suppose you're a little tired after all that."

"Y-yeah, if you don't mind Satoshi-kun."

Satoshi removed his hand, and Shion felt the warmth she had felt diminish, but only a little, and the pair left the alley for Shion's house.

* * *

"So what happened?" Mion asked almost as soon as Shion had come into the house.

"What do you mean?" Shion asked her sister.

"Don't pretend nothing happened, I see you walking home with the transfer student, while your face is several shades redder than normal and don't pretend you weren't sneaking glances at him, I saw it all through my window."

Shion blushed, "A-ano, well you see..."

Shion told her sister what had happened, and at the end Mion almost screamed with excitement. "My little sister is finally falling in love, today is a day to remember for posterity!"

"Onee, could you please not shout it out loud. And I don't know about loving Satoshi-kun."

"Oh really? Then let me ask you, how do you feel when he touches you?"

Shion blushed again, "I feel... warm."

Mion nodded, "Yeah, you're in love."

Shion's face went scarlet, "I am not! Stop trying to make it out that I am, you don't even know what you're talking about."

"Shii-chan, in case you've forgotten, I have a girlfriend, and you don't."

"Well I don't want a girlfriend," Shion quipped, trying to salvage some level of a triumph.

"But you don't have a boyfriend either now do you?" Mion pointed out. "Don't worry sis, I'll help you anyway you need."

Shion was slightly worried about what form this 'help' would take. "Look I don't need help, I... I'm not even in love!"

"Ah, the denial stage, don't worry, I went through the same thing with Rena."

Shion was wondering if she could go any more red in the face at this point, but tried to salvage some dignity by turning and leaving at this point, pretendng to ignore her sister. It might have worked, if she had not tripped over her own feet and fallen. A laughing Mion helped her. "Seriously sis, I think you do love him, so go for it while he's still available."

Shion glared at her sister, before leaving for her room.

* * *

That night, Shion was rolling about on her bed, trying to get comfortable and go to sleep. But sleep would not come to her, and she kept thinking about Satoshi, and what her sister had said earlier.

'Do I love him? I don't know, he is really nice when he's not being closed in, and I do like him... but love?' She rolled over again, and thought about what had happened that afternoon, 'He came to help me, without worrying about himself. He was so kind...' She blushed when she thought about him patting her head. She felt the warm feeling rise in her again as she thought about him.

'I think... maybe... I love him.' When she thought that, it sounded so very right, and she said to herself quietly "I love him." Then a little louder, "I love him." Then louder still, "I love him!"

"Good, you finally realised!" Mion shouted through the, very thin, wall, "Now go to sleep!"

Shion though that she had the worst of luck some times: just when she had worked out she was in love Mion had to ruin the moment. She closed her eyes to sleep, but just as she drifted off, she murmured "I love Satoshi-kun."

* * *

A/N: Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai, Gomenasai.

I took far too long to get this up. But I've been busy lately, and I'm still juggling 7 stories total. I'll try to update soon, but until then:

Bis Bald

BW


	4. Chapter 3

Higurashi High, Ch3

Shion combed her hair, this morning being more careful than normal to do it properly. She knew she was being silly, but still wanted to look good while around Satoshi. After a rather uncomfortable Sunday of Mion asking questions about Satoshi, Monday had sprung upon them all too quickly for the older sister, while Shion was partly glad of it.

She stepped out of her room, and half-walked half-skipped down the stairs, her black skirt rising just a little too far up. Fortunately, there were no witnesses to what the skirt kept hidden, save for the stairs, which got a full view of them everyday anyway. She looked at herself in the hall mirror on her way past, and smiled at herself. Today, she had decided, would be a good day.

She checked her watch and saw that she was early, and her sister would not be ready for another ten minutes or so, so she sat at the bottom of the stairs, on the third step, waiting. Her mind wandered as she waited, where to, it was quite obvious from the fact that she was sighing and turning a light pink colour, and muttered "Satoshi-kun," very lightly under her breath.

"What was that Shii-chan? Not fantasizing about a guy this early in the morning are you?"

"Shut up, Onee," Shion replied, standing and turning to see her sister. However much she tried though, a light red ting remained on her cheeks.

"It's okay Shii-chan, I fantasize about Rena all the time."

Shion was taken aback by her sister's honesty, "I'd rather not know what you are thinking about Rena to be honest."

"But we're sisters, we're supposed to talk about boys, or girls depending."

"Yes, but I don't want the dirty details." Shion turned to the door and grabbed her shoes from the rack. "Anyway, we'd better be off, we don't want to be late, do we Class Rep?" She then opened the door and stepped out, followed by her sister. In spite of her sister's teasing, Shion still thought that today would be a good day...

* * *

"Hojo is absent? Okay..."

Shion frowned, Satoshi had not come in today. With most people, she would have assumed they just had a cold or something, but with Satoshi, she was afraid that it might be something more major.

The teacher had just put down the register, when the door opened, and in came Satoshi, "Sorry I'm late Sensei."

"That's okay... Hojo-san." The teacher's pause was well founded: he was as surprised as anyone by Satoshi's appearance. The boy had, much to Shion's shock, his right arm in a sling, and a black eye.

Satoshi went over to his seat, and with his uninjured hand, pulled back his chair to sit down. Shion leaned towards him, "What happened?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"I... fell down the stairs."

Shion knew it was a lie, but did not ask him about it then, but making a careful mental note to ask him about it later. So much for her good day.

* * *

"So Satoshi-kun, tell me the truth now," Shion said as they sat outside at a bench.

"What do you mean Shion-chan?" Satoshi asked, taking a bite from the rice in his chopsticks which he held clumsily in his left hand, while trying to balance his lunchbox on his lap.

"You know perfectly well what I mean Satoshi-kun, now spill it."

Satoshi looked down at his lap, and Shion did not think he would answer, but then he spoke, "I didn't lie, I did fall down the stairs, but to be more accurate my uncle pushed me."

Shion's eyes widened, "Oh Satoshi-kun..."

"He was trying to hit Satoko about something stupid again, and when I tried to stop him, he pushed me..."

Shion's worried eyes locked on Satoshi, "Did you break anything else?"

"A fractured rib and a few cuts on my back, and that was it. It's not too painful any more, but I'd be lying to say that it didn't hurt at all." Satoshi tried to eat another bite of rice, but accidentally dropped the chopsticks.

Shion took the chopsticks, picked up some rice, and raised it to Satoshi's mouth. The boy looked at it inquisitively, and Shion smiled at him, "Open up." Satoshi opened his mouth, and Shion put the chopstick's end in his mouth. Then Shion realised what she had just done, and a deep blush spread across her face, but she continued what she had started. It was slow, but they eventually got to the end of the lunch box.

Satoshi smiled, "Thank you, Shion."

Shion's blush intensified, and she looked away.

* * *

"Oh, this is brilliant, I can't believe what I'm seeing, I'm gonna have so much fun." Mion smirked as she watched her sister from their classroom, using binoculars that she had borrowed from Rena. The younger girl had thought they were cute.

"Mii-chan, that's a bit mean, you shouldn't be so mean to Shii-chan and Hojo-san, you shouldn't," Rena tried to reason with her girlfriend.

"But I'm her big sister, I have to be mean to her. Anyway, if I'm not, then she'll never 'fess up to him."

"But Mii-chan, don't overdo it, you didn't like it when she teased you about us, you didn't."

Mion smirked at Rena, "That's why I'm doing this."

Rena tilted her head, "I still don't think this is a good idea..."

Mion turned back to her binoculars, "Trust me, I won't go too far."

"Go too far with what?" a male voice asked from behind them, and the girls turned to see Keiichi walking up behind them. "You weren't thinking of going part way with my offer were you?"

"Which offer is that?" Rena asked, looking between the two.

"Oh, well this pervert was trying to make me cheat on you Rena," Mion replied bluntly, the annoyance clear in her voice.

"I did say that if you were worried about cheating then we could all..." Keiichi did not get any further, as Mion punched him in the jaw.

"No way would we do it with a pervert like you!" the girl half-shouted at Keiichi.

"Ah well," Keiichi said, rubbing his jaw, "there's always Shion-chan. I might try to get her to join me for some fun."

Mion was slightly disgusted by the perverted look in his eyes as he thought about her sister, and was more than glad to burst his bubble by grabbing his collar and forcing him to look out the window at where Shion and Satoshi still sat, Shion with a blush on her face, which became obvious to Keiichi when Mion put the binoculars to his eyes.

"Wh-WHAT? She's with that transfer student?" Keiichi's legs buckled and he fell to the floor, trying to act dramatically. "Why does this happen to me? Why does everybody shun me?"

"'Cause you're a pervert Keiichi. Come on Rena, let's leave him to his own self-pity." Mion turned and left, Rena following, giving a slightly worried glance at Keiichi, but then remembered what he had tried to get Mion to do, and turned away, ceasing to care about the pervert, who was now crying on the floor.

* * *

Shion was still blushing gently as she walked back towards class with Satoshi, still affected by what had happened between them, when she noticed a very angry Mion, followed by Rena, heading towards them. When her sister reached them, Shion asked "What's the matter?"

Mion glared and did not say a word, while Rena came up behind and mouthed "Keiichi," knowing that saying his name out loud might trigger an adverse response. Not that it would necessarily be all bad: the make-up se... erm, sorry, back to what was happening.

Shion nodded understandingly, and muttered something about needing to go do something, before quickly leaving, followed by Satoshi.

"So is you're sister always that scary?" Satoshi asked.

"No... but that pervert Keiichi probably said something to put her in a bad mood, probably tried to make her cheat on Rena again."

"Rena? So are they...?" Satoshi enquired.

"Yeah, for quite a while. They do make a good couple it has to be said, although I wish that they'd..." Shion suddenly shut up, realising what she was about to say.

"They'd what?"

Shion smirked a little, "Well put it this way, the wall between my room and Onee's is very thin, so we can easily hear what, or _who_, the other is doing."

Satoshi blushed slightly, then smirked slightly, "I would imagine that it would effect you a lot, knowing what your sister and friend were up to only a few feet away," he teased.

Shion turned a slight glare on Satoshi, "No way. I've got nothing against them being that way, but I myself am absolutly sure that I'm only interested in men, _not_ women thank you very much."

Satoshi smiled slightly as she said that, which surprised Shion. She could not really see what she said to make Satoshi smile. "What's made you so happy suddenly?"

"Oh... nothing," he said, before walking striding faster, making Shion have to half-run to keep up.

* * *

"Shion-chan, be more gentle."

"I'll try to do it more slowly if that helps, but I think I'd better wet it first."

"Ah... Shion-chan."

"Satoshi..." shion sighed, "Don't be such a baby, man up will you." She continued to remove the plaster from the cut on Satoshi's back. Why? What did you think they were doing?

"But it's goddamn painful," Satoshi replied. "They come off more easily the wetter they are, so just wet it a bit more."

"Urgh, there..." Shion ripped the plaster fully off, then, ignoring Satoshi' complaints, then took a new one and put it on over the small cut. "You're the one who wants to hurry to go and get your sister, so stop complaining."

"You've got to pick up Rika as well, haven't you?" Satoshi continued complaining, now only half-heartedly.

"Even more reason for us to hurry then, ne, Satoshi-kun?"

Satoshi gave up, and once the last plaster was replaced, stood to leave, "Well shall we go now Shion-chan, we don't want to keep them waiting."

Shion smiled at him, in spite of his injury, through the whole day, he had been in remarkable good spirits. Shion had no idea why, but was glad of it. She followed him out of the classroom, where they had been the last ones left, as Satoshi neededto have his plasters changed, or so he said, Shion could not see any reason why they could need changing, but had not argued, as she got to spend more time with the blonde boy.

They reached the middle school fairly quickly, and took the other two children to their homes. At the Hojos' house, they stopped, and Shion smiled at Satoshi, "Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Satoshi-kun."

"See you Shion-chan."

Shion felt suddenly very brave, and leaned closer to Satoshi, and pecked him on the cheek, before taking Rika's hand quickly, and leaving quickly, waving to the sibling. Satoshi waved vaguely with his free hand, a light red tinging his cheeks. Satoko looked up at him, and gave him a very rare smile, "You like her don't you."

"She's the best friend I've ever had."

Satoko sighed, "That's not what I mean Nii-Nii, you love her don't you?"

Satoshi looked at his sister, then looked back to where Shion was just turning a corner to leave his line of vision. He nodded, "Hai."

* * *

Shion tossed and turned in bed, 'What am I gonna say to him tomorrow? Oh... I hope I wasn't too forward...' She rolled over again. When she had got home, she had been in a semi-daze, and Mion had been very suspicious of Shion, but did not manage to find anything, mostly because Shion was incapable of giving answers of more than three syllables in the state she was in.

Shion tried to calm down, 'Oh... I shouldn't have kissed him... but it did feel good... and right...' Shion tossed and turned for another half hour, before she finally managed to fall asleep.

* * *

A/N: Okay... I know I'm taking far too long to update... but... okay I have no excuse. But thanks to sticking with me so far. Especially to Shashuko the Paisley Maiden (did I spell it right?) for the repeat reviews for this, and my other Higurashi fics. Now, it's 10 o'clock over here, and I didn't get to sleep until half two this morning, so I'm kinda tired. So I'll end this here...

Bis Bald

BW


	5. Chapter 4

Higurashi High, Ch4

Shion and Satoshi were walking together to the middle school to pick up the girls again. It had been a few weeks since Shion had kissed the boy, and somehow, they had naturally got over it, and continued almost as if nothing had happened, with the exception of Shion kissing the blond on the cheek to say goodbye almost every day.

The two were chatting about various things when the topic of sport came up, Shion asked "What sports do you play Satoshi-kun?"

Satoshi thought before answering, "Well I used to play baseball at my old school in the school team..."

"Well our school has a team, why don't you try-out for it?"

"Well... the practise times are... inconvenient."

Shion could not see anything inconvenient about the times: they were straight after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and on Saturday mornings? "What's so inconvenient?"

"Erm... well..." Satoshi cast his eyes down, and Shion realised the meaning behind his words.

"Oh sorry... I forgot..."

"It's only natural... come on, let's go." Satoshi sounded rather subdued as he spoke, and then continued walking.

'Oh goodness, how could I be so insensitive... I've got to make it up to him somehow... hang on...' An idea began to brew in the green-haired girl's head. 'That should work.'

* * *

"So, what do you think?" Shion asked the younger girl, as they waited for the blonde's brother, who had conveniently forgotten something at school. Meanwhile Shion took the opportunity to talk to Satoko, while Rika let the other two discuss their 'private matter.'

"Shion-san, I think it's good." Satoko gave a hint of a smile as she spoke.

"So when do we begin?"

"Try tomorrow, Uncle should be in then. Just one more thing, Shion-san, do you like my brother?"

Shion raised an eyebrow, "Of course I like him, he's a very close friend."

'Just like what Nii-Nii said,' Satoko thought, remembering a previous conversation with her brother. "That's not what I mean, you love Nii-Nii don't you? That's why you're doing all this for him, isn't it?"

Shion blushed, then answered frankly, "Satoko-chan, you are far too observant, but yes, you're right, I do love him."

Satoko nodded, "That's good, I'm glad. Nii-Nii's always been looking after me so much, I really want him to be happy, especially with the girl he loves."

"Wh-what?" Shion asked suddenly at the last part of Satoko's sentence processed in her mind. But the girls heard Satoshi call to them, and they turned towards him.

As Satoko ran towards her brother, she turned quickly back to Shion, "He does, trust me." Then she ran towards her brother, leaving a slightly dazed Shion.

Rika now approached the older girl, "It's time to go now, sir. We need to get home for dinner, sir." Shion, still a little dazed, just stared at the other girl. Rika smiled and tilted her head, "Nii-pah~."

* * *

Shion was walking back home the next day, this time with only Satoshi and Satoko, as Rika's mother had picked her up. They were almost at the Hojo's house, when Shion winked at Satoko behind Satoshi's back, just before they reached a particularly steep slope, which conveniently had high leaf cover. Shion _accidentally_ slipped on some rather slippery leaves, and fell down the slope.

Okay, to anybody paying attention to her feet, it was clear that she did it on purpose, but Satoshi was more concerned with Shion's wellbeing than anything else, and he quickly knelt by her side, "Shion-chan, are you okay?"

"I think so..." Shion tried to stand, but realised that she had actually sprained her ankle, and cried out. She had planned to fake it, but this worked too.

"Come on," Satoshi reached an arm around her shoulders, slipping his arm carefully under hers, and then helped her stand. With some difficulty, the two of them made their way down the slope, with Satoko following carrying Shion's bag along with her own. They managed to make it to the Hojo house, just at the same time as Satoshi's uncle came up to the gate from the other direction.

"Ojisan!" Satoko said suddenly, very glad that Shion was there: she doubted that her uncle would do anything with anybody outside the family around.

"What's this all about Satoshi?" Teppei asked. He sounded friendly, jovial almost, but Shion knew that behind the facade was a hideous soul.

"My friend Shion slipped on the slope and sprained her ankle," Satoshi replied, seemingly unfazed by his uncle's presence. Shion guessed that he felt safe, knowing that his uncle was unlikely to be openly hostile for the moment.

"Ah, I see, tell me, Shion was it? How far's your home? Think you can make it there, or would you like a lift?"

Shion smiled, her plan was working, "If you wouldn't mind, a lift would be briliant."

"Okay, just gimme a minute while I get these to my wife," he indicated two shopping bags, before he went up the drive to the house, Satoko following him, and giving a slight wave to Shion and Satoshi.

Satoshi waved back with his free hand, "Shion, is it just me, or are you planning something?"

"Why do you say that Satoshi-kun?" Shion asked, do her best 'innocent-puppy-eyes' look.

"Just a hunch."

"Don't you trust me, Satoshi-kun?"

"I do trust you, I trust you to plan something to gain whatever you want."

"Aw~ you know me too well," Shion said, trying to do a 'cutesy' voice.

"No, I don't know you well enough," Satoshi muttered, looking away.

"Satoshi-kun?" Shion asked, trying to catch his eye. He turned back to face her, and their eyes met, then Satoshi's darted down to Shion's lips for a moment, before settling on her eyes once more.

"Right, sorry 'bout that..." Teppei said, coming out of the house. The two teenagers quickly turned away from each other, and looked over at the man as he came over to them, and unlocked the car. Satoshi quickly helped Shion in to the back, and went round to the other side.

After giving Teppei the directions, Shion waited until they had pulled out to speak to Satoshi, "You know Satoshi, the try-outs for all the sports teams are coming up, are you going to any of them."

"N...No," Satoshi said quietly.

"Why ever not Satoshi?"Teppei asked from the front. "You were in the baseball team at your last school, don't they do it here?"

"Well... yes..." Satoshi looked pleadingly at Shion, pleading her to change the subject.

Instead, she continued, "Well the baseball try-outs are this Saturday, you should go Satoshi. I'd like to see you play, and I'm sure Satoko would too."

Then it dawned on Satoshi, "Well... I suppose I could..."

"That's the spirit," Teppei said, before pulling up outside Shion's house. "Well here we are."

Satoshi got out from his side, and helped Shion out and up the drive to the front door. He rang the bell, and a rather surprised Mion opened the door.

"Shii-chan, what happened?"

"I slipped on a slope and sprained my ankle, so Satoshi helped me as far as his house and his uncle gave us a lift over here."

Mion turned to Satoshi, "Satoshi-san, thanks for helping my useless sister."

"Hey!" Shion protested, as she gingerly stepped inside, careful not to put too much weight on her ankle.

"It's no problem. Now I'd better get going, see you both tomorrow, Mion-san, Shion-chan." Satoshi turned back and walked down the drive to the car.

As soon as she had closed the door, Mion turned to her sister, "Right! What really happened?"

Shion sighed, "He just told you, the truth, and nothing but the truth."

"What about the whole truth?"

"Hm... as far as he was aware, pretty much."

"So what are you hiding?" Mion inquired, feeling like she was finally getting somewhere.

"I'm hiding it, so why'd I tell you?" Shion asked.

"Because... otherwise I'll broadcast to everybody about how you feel about a certain blond boy."

"You wouldn't."

"I would."

"Okay, then I'll tell everybody about _exactly_ what you and Rena do, I might even..."

"Okay, we'll play it your way," Mion gave up.

* * *

The next day, when Satoshi came into the classroom, he sat down next to Shion, before letting out a deep breath, "Shion-chan, you are either a genius, or lucky."

"Both I think, what happened?"

"He said I should go to the try-outs on Saturday, and take Satoko to watch if she wanted. How the hell do you manage these things?"

"I'm just amazing," Shion said, smiling, "Oh, and I'm coming on Saturday to watch too, so you'd better get into the team."

"But if I do, then Satoko will still..." he said quietly.

"Don't worry about that, I've already thought of that. You see, the school doctor is in charge of the team, and he's looking for an assistant manager or two. I've also heard he has soft spot for cute girls."

"Shion, you are amazing," Satoshi said, without a hint of a joke in his voice.

Shion blushed and looked away, "E~to... thanks."

She saw Mion staring pointedly at her, and turned back to Satoshi. She beamed at him, "So, Satoshi-kun, do your best!"

He returned the smile, "I will, Shion."

'No honourific? Oh~ does that mean he thinks of me as a really good friend or...' Shion turned to front of the room, as the teacher came in. She was still slightly red.

And she could not wait until Saturday.

* * *

Bis Bald

BW


End file.
